A whaler leaving New Bedford Harbour.
As in Nantucket, the whole city lived to go whaling, and as each inhabitant made more money, he moved his residence higher up on the Hill. It is said that there was an inn called the “Crossed Harpoons,” and another called “Spouter Inn,” and there is a Whaleman’s Chapel on Johnny Cake Hill where regular Sunday services were held, at which the following hymn was always sung by the congregation:—
“The ribs and terrors of the whale
Arched over me in dismal gloom,
While all God’s sun-lit waves rolled by
And left me deepening down to doom.
“I saw the opening maw of hell,
With endless pains and sorrows there;
Which none but they that feel can tell—